Feasibility of 1,3-butanediol as solvent for limonene and linalool separation

Liquid–liquid equilibrium of the system limonene + linalool + 1,3-butanediol has been studied at two different temperatures. The obtained data were satisfactorily correlated with the NRTL activity coefficient model, in order to obtain the binary interaction parameters of the mixture. Later on, an extraction column was simulated with ASPEN PLUS^® software, to ascertain the feasibility of 1,3-butanediol as solvent for limonene and linalool separation and to determine the advantages of this solvent over the employed previous ones in this process. The influence of the number of theoretical stages and the solvent/feed ratio over the amount and purity of the recovered limonene and linalool were also studied.